Magnetism of hematites

rdnyisaac

Scenario:
You have a small, magnetized, cylinder-shaped hematite. The positive pole is on top and the negative pole is on the bottom. You took a laser to carve a new, smaller cylinder. After you're done carving, you are left with a smaller cylinder and a ring.

Here are my questions:

Will the laser mess with the poles?

If it doesn't mess with the poles, what would happen it you pickup the small cylinder now?

Drakkith

As long as the hematite isn't heated past a certain point it should retain it's magnetism after being carved. Both the cylinder and ring should still be magnetic with the poles aligned in the same direction.

rdnyisaac

Would it be possibly safe to use a laser without the magnetism being lost?

Drakkith

I don't know enough about using lasers to answer that. I would think that as long as you kept the hematite cool you would be fine.